The Dog by Joseph O'Neill

A New York lawyer immigrates to Dubai to work for the tremendously rich family of a college friend. As the “family officer” in this bizarre desert wonderland, our narrator navigates the strange conflicts signature to modern life. Is his addiction to Googling and Facebooking and Wikiing any more obsessive than all of ours? Is his attachment to his Pasha massage chair so wrong? The Dog is fantastically funny with deep heart. Comically philosophical, smart and minimally sarcastic, it solidifies O’Neill’s place among the literary elite. —Julia